__:: [UCKANGE_4] ::__ |Les Forces Alliées / Convulsions Sonores, 2008|

1. Konkassor, 2. Mono_industrial_mekanism, 3. ! Aktion !, 4. Korean Kaos, 5. [u4], 6. Flug, 7. Kontakt, 8. Molekulär, 9. L79, 10. Blast Furnace Valley

Industrial rebels from Muckrackers they are in fact the residents of a French industrial area called 'Blast Furnace Valley' - Fensch Valley, Lorraine. They have been deeply fascinated with abandoned places, factories, noise and automatized production process so forming a band was the final step to put ideas and inspiration into fruition. The band underlines its activity, creativity and the final product over the fact who exactly plays in the band and whom they are in person.

The CD is yet another non standard release, put out as an audio CD but packed in a DVD box with extended, bigger size booklet. There are amazing pictures in the booklet, all those rusted factories and pipes taken by the musicians on their route to abandoned manufactures. There are many places like those in France but they need a deep investigation to find the best. The pictures are well done and yet another time they speak for the musicians' fascination with pipes, valves, chimneys, silos, rust and the meaning of automated work.

On general, the musicians mixed rough industrial music based on an impact the industry made to a human being with guitar driven tunes enriched with a power of hard core or punk styles.
So that amongst ten songs you'll find !Action! that drew my attention at once, yelled out, guitar driven song, the most aggressive on the album. Next '[u4]' it's also an industrial Godflesh-like roll, however and fortunately less depressive and more mechanic with all those machine sounds and pick clattering in the background interlaced. The third front runner of mine is 'Flug' with a howling siren and merciless beats with digitalized guitars in a feedback.

'Kontakt' it's a track kept in techno and power noise vibe with enough of edgy guitar riffs. This is how I find Muckrackers music cool because they know how to use guitars and the amount of riffs used is just enough if they want to sound not metal yet but still industrial. If they used too much of beats and machines sounds I wouldn't find them so interesting and the CD would sounds like one of many of that kind. There's a big plus for a vocalist too as he's yelling and growling most of the time.

There are a few non guitar songs on the CD too, I mean those typical for industrial genre: mixtures of noises, radio transmissions, movie dialogues with industrial machines sounds in the background ('Mono_industrial_mekanism' and 'Blast Furnace Valley', a dedication to the place where the musicians live and create).

The songs by Muckrackers were placed on a variety of compilation CDs, singles and EPs.
The band has been very active and eager enough to come up with new songs quite often. I can't tell if they tend to be famous and rich more than release their ideas so the driving force behind the band seems to be their passion for the work process as the whole industry thing is about. Muckrackers' music mixes influences of both hardcore, industrial-metal and true and rough industrial music so should be appreciated at least amongst the fans of those styles.

It's a really good album and to me if offered with visuals during live shows it gets even better taste.
The band has performed recently a show at Bez Kontroli festival in Antonin, Poland. (NINa)

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